The revolutionary Tribunal is installed at
headquarters, soldiers are urged to denounce their officers, the
informer is promised money and secrecy, he and the accused are not
allowed to confront each other, no investigation, no papers allowed,
even to make exception to the verdict - a simple examination without
any notes, the accused arrested at eight o'clock, condemned at nine
o'clock, and shot at ten o'clock.[115]
Naturally, under such a system, no one wants to command; already,
before Saint Just's arrival, Meunier had consented to act as Major-
General only ad interim; "every hour of the day" he demanded his
removal; unable to secure this, he refused to issue any order. The
representatives, to procure his successor, are obliged to descend down
to a depot captain, Carlin, bold enough or stupid enough to allow
himself to take a commission under their lead, which was a commission
for the guillotine. - If such is their presumption in military
matters, what must it be in civil affairs! On this side there is no
external check, no Spanish or German army capable of at once taking
them in flagrante delicto, and of profiting by their ambitious
incapacity and mischievous interference.
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